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K-12 Professional Development

K-12 Courses

We offer quality high-quality, researched-based professional development that focuses on best practices, in an online environment for K-12 Educators. We offer Teacher Courses, School Counseling Courses, Principal Courses and School Leadership Courses. All courses can be taken online or in a blended learning format. 
 
              TEACHER COURSES​                                         PRINCIPAL COURSES​
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            COUNSELING COURSES​​                                  LEADERSHIP COURSES

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Courses are offered through our companion site

MyEdWeb.com

K-12 Workshops

Moving Science Forward

It's All About The Mathematics

During this session, the participants will take a look at a typical day in a science class.  The participants will focus on the NGSS performance expectations. The participants will discuss how we are going to transition from the GLCE’s to the NGSS performance expectations moving away from the GLCE (Grade Level Content Expectations) to the NGSS story lines.  The participants will also look at how to integrate experiments you are already using and determine how they fit into the story line using backward mapping.  This session is for instructors that want to begin to transition their classrooms from the GLCE’s to NGSS.

​During this session, the participants will take a look at a typical day in a mathematics class.  The participants will look at several research-based strategies used to increase student achievement.  The participants will also consider the use of logic puzzles, performance task, math games as well as math projects as a way to help move students more toward application while addressing the deficits they may have from previous years.  The participants will determine how they to manage the whole group and small group instruction as they begin to incorporate these research-based strategies. 

Classroom Management

During this session, the participants will consider various classroom management techniques to engage students so that they actively engage in learning.  The participants will role-play different situations that make occur in the classroom.  The participants will develop protocols on how to build relational trust with students.  The participants will incorporate what they have learned about Restorative Practices and how it will look in the classroom through simulated activities.

Charlotte Danielson..Going Deep

This professional development session is designed to strengthen educators’ understanding of the Charlotte Danielson rubric. They will have the opportunity to delve deeper into the domains and the nuances in the wording of each descriptor. During the session, the participants will view a video of classroom instruction and evaluate the educator using the Danielson rubric.  By doing such, they can practice the mindset of objectivity, use a keen eye to pay attention to detail, and focus on the teacher/student interactions. Serving as the evaluator during this session should heighten delivery in their classrooms.

Explosive Growth

The Key to 1.5 Years’ Achievement in 1 Year: This session will provide useful resources for all teachers to implement Tier One MTSS (Multi-Tier System of Supports) interventions in their classroom. At the conclusion of the session, the following will be answered: What is MTSS? Is 1.5 years’ growth possible? What is my role in this process? What tools can I implement to foster student growth?

Surviving Yr 1 of Administration

The session is an authentic look at the first year of school leadership. Participants will engage in real-life scenarios to fully understand the magnitude of school leadership.  At the conclusion, leaders will be more knowledgeable about the following topics: site/facility management, concise communication, staff development, student interactions, parent engagement, climate/culture and instructional oversite. This professional development session can be modified to fit the needs of a district and can range from a ½ day to 3 full days.

Teacher/Student Feedback

Feedback is not just for students…teachers need it too!: This session removes the notion that children should not offer feedback to adults.  Through a series of exercises, educators will understand the value in giving and receiving ongoing feedback to and from students.  They will also receive tools to utilize immediately. Upon implementation in the classroom, increased performance from both parties can manifest through stronger relationships, higher engagement and improved academic performance.

Data Analysis and Instruction 

During this session, the participants will analyze your school data.  We will look at strategies on how to make data-informed decisions.  The participants will look for trends such as strengths and weaknesses.  Using the data analysis tools, the participants will begin to consider how to change classroom instruction to help students make connections and scaffold their learning.  This session is for instructors who have classes where the vast majority of the students are one to two grades below level or instructors with advanced students who want to push their students ahead.  Please bring data sets such as (NWEA results, benchmark test data, and M-STEP data). Please be aware the majority of the class is hands-on.

Restorative Practices

During this session, the participants will learn about the new discipline law in Michigan and understand how restorative philosophies, techniques and strategies can be used to build, support and repair relationships. Participants will also learn how to integrate restorative practices in whole school development, the contextual conditions for development, how to sustain neutrality and how to effectively involve students in the process both as champions and mediators.

Advisory..More Than Just A Class

The philosophy behind advisory is the principle of personalization—a commitment to ensuring that all students have a positive, consistent, long-term relationship with at least one adult in the school community. During the session, educators will understand the difference between being a “teacher” and an “advisor”. They will have a greater understanding of expectations, lesson design, rituals, routines, and norms.

Communicating with Families

Effective communication is the key to any successful relationship and in a school setting, ongoing communication with parents is paramount.  This session features multiple communication tools, using various mediums, and highlights the timeline for delivery of school-wide and classroom specific messages.  During the session, participants will have the opportunity to enroll in parent friendly online platforms and begin crafting messages to their school community.

Cooperative Learning

Many teachers are fearful of cooperative learning due to the idea of releasing control! Studies show that students show mastery of a concept when they can teach a lesson to others, and this demonstration of learning is integrated into classrooms nation-wide. Cooperative learning is multifaceted, and this session models effective strategies for implementing it into daily practice through creative classroom configurations, group activities, team roles and responsibilities and peer teaching. 

School-Wide PBIS

The implementation of PBIS (Positive Behaviors Interventions and Supports) can completely transform the climate and culture of a school.  This session is designed to address the needs of each school individually. Prior to delivery, a meeting with school leadership takes place to fully understand the needs, goals, and expectations of program implementation.  A full day session then takes place with staff to design school-specific tools including tiered interventions, culture rubric, reward system, and monthly reports.

Student Expectations of Self

Student Expectations of Self and Goal Setting: This engaging “make and take” professional development session is designed for participants to gain a deeper understanding of student expectations of self, through the use of goal setting and reflection tools. Participants will review research on the importance of embedding goal setting and reflection into the instructional process, review techniques for implementation in the classroom and design templates to introduce this process to their students. 

 

LEADERSHIP ACADEMIES

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Your district can host its own

Leadership Academy

We will show you how!

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An Innovative Approach
 

Strengthen and develop your school leadership. Build capacity to meet the complex challenges of today’s school environment with leadership that is inspired and innovative. The EdConsult Leadership Academy for principals, assistant principals and teachers will transform student learning and school improvement. We offer both customized district full-year academies as well as three-day instructional leadership academies as outlined below.

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We create a custom Academy experience for your district

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EdConsult Academies, powered by ASAP®, are customized to the needs of each district, using elements in a blended program format with many unique features that distinguish it from typical district programs.

 

The EdConsult Academy combines initial Educational Leadership Assessments of individual capacities, personal interviews, and a “Decision Making and Prioritization Skills Assessment,” which provides each candidate with a number of crisis scenarios during a simulated school day, and a condensed time frame in which to formulate reactions and responses. This creates a rich data set from which to build individual learning plans, team goals and activities, and components of school team involvement in the school improvement planning process.

 

Assessments provide direction for learning and online modules directly target areas of need. Participants engage with prescribed learning modules individually and process learning in cohort meetings. Mentors provide both individual and group feedback and support.

 

Over the course of the school year, Academy participants attend retreats in which they are immersed in learning away from the school site. Participants are fully removed from their usual work and learning milieu and presentations are tailored to district and school needs (e.g., building high literacy achievement in urban schools).

 

An online learning community connects the cohort 24/7. While cohort members initially bond through the first retreat, the online community serves to deepen the bonds. Members use the online community to post readings of interest, share documents and disseminate news. Members tap each other as resources and sounding boards for learning and onsite activities.

 

We create the Academy scope documentation in concert with district leadership, provide support in applying for and securing Title II funding, and provide:

 

  • ASAP® Educational Leadership Assessments

  • ASAP® Learning Modules

  • Online learning community, and Program Director

  • Retreat presenters

  • School Improvement Plan Guidebook

  • Mentor Guidebook

  • ASAP® School Leadership Assessment

  • Regular reporting on participation and assessments

  • and much, much more…

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Academy for Instructional Leadership

 

The EdConsult Academy for Instructional Leadership, powered by ASAP®, is a two and one-half day (i.e. Friday afternoon, Saturday, Sunday) intensive retreat providing in-depth assessment, collaborative learning and ongoing follow-up for teachers and administrators who want to be leaders in improving teaching and learning.

 

This program is ideal for candidates seeking to receive CEU’s or SCECH’s to renew their teaching or administrative certification. The overall effect of instructional leaders on student learning outcomes is almost four times that of transformational leaders (Robinson, Lloyd, and Rowe, 2008). Yet many school leaders -- as high as 80% -- believe they are transformational leaders (Marks, 2013), focusing more on teachers.

 

According to John Hattie (2015), transformational leaders set a vision, create common goals for the school, inspire and set direction, and provide teachers a high degree of autonomy. Instructional leaders focus more on students. They are concerned with the teachers’ and the school’s impact on student learning and instructional issues, conducting classroom observations, ensuring professional development that enhances student learning, communicating high academic standards, and ensuring that all school environments are conducive to learning.

 

You can help your school leaders become instructional leaders first and foremost. The EdConsult Instructional Leadership Academy provides the kind of professional development that enhances student learning, combining two modes of learning, individualized and collaborative, with three distinct outcomes:

 

  • Individual growth by educators engaged in differentiated instruction for adult learners

  • Enhanced collaboration and teamwork among group participants that continues after the event has concluded, through participation in an online learning community.

  • Alignment of identified areas of individual professional development with school vision and goals, through a reflective process individual to each participant.

 

Together, these will support the development and enhancement of instructional leadership skills for all of the educators in your schools. Each participant receives a detailed profile of their instructional knowledge based on the ISLLC 2015 standards. From this profile, individualized learning content can be assigned. Members participate in an online community and can join in discussion forums based on content, building sharing and trust across schools and districts that extends the learning well past the completion of the Academy retreat.

 

The retreat begins with a welcome and orientation, and then participants get right to work. The scheduled activities begin with a series of comprehensive assessments aligned with the 2015 revisions of the standards of the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC), as published by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). The first bank of assessments is completed prior to a break for social time on Friday afternoon and completed during the Saturday morning session.

 

As the results are reviewed for each participant and an individualized learning plan is drawn up based on the proficiency criteria within the standards, all attendees participate in a scenario-based simulator which mimics a day in the life of a school principal. The focus of the simulator content is decision-making and prioritization - critical skills for an effective school leader. Each person works through the simulated experiences and challenge questions individually, and then joins in a small group review of what took place.

 

The result is an “ah-ha” experience for many participants, and sharing of experiences and knowledge from the cross section of educators enrolled in this cohort.

 

Retreat Schedule

 

Day 1

Friday, 3:00 pm: Registration and welcome

3:30 – 6:00 pm: Orientation and initial assessment

Evening Social Time

 

Day 2

Saturday, 8:30 – 9:00 am: Morning welcome and coffee

9:00 – 11:00 am: Continuation of Educational Leadership Assessment

11:00 – 12:00 pm: Featured speaker

12:00 – 1:15 pm: Lunch Break

1:15 – 1:30 pm: In-Basket Simulator Orientation

1:30 – 3:00 pm: In-Basket Simulator

3:00 – 3:15 pm: Afternoon (coffee) break

3:15 – 4:15 pm: Scenario worksheets and lesson reflection

4:15 - 5:30 pm: ELA Results

Evening Social Time

 

Day 3

Sunday, 8:30 – 9:00 am: Morning welcome and coffee

9:00 – 11:00 am: ASAP® Visioning Exercise – “Choosing the School You Will Lead”

11:00 – 12:00 pm: Group reflection on the lesson

12:00 – 1:15 pm: Lunch Break

1:15 – 1:30 pm: Orientation on use of ASAP® learning content modules

1:30 – 4:00 pm: ASAP® Learning module “Instructional Leadership”

4:00 – 4:15 pm: Introduction to the online learning community

4:15 – 4:30 pm: Final questions and conclusion 

 

Every participant will be enrolled in the online learning community and will log in before they leave the retreat. They will be assigned two content module exercises to complete with other members of the cohort after they leave the retreat. This will extend the learning and engage all participants in sharing examples of work from their own learning environment. Educational Leadership Assessment results will be distributed along with recommendations for follow-up study and links to learning content matched to the assessment results. A course completion certificate will be provided upon completion of the follow-up exercise results. Participants may continue to use the online learning forum for up to 6 months.

 

The blended learning format supports individual learning through advanced online tools that complement fact-to-face work with peers, while collaborative learning occurs in the teams that continue to work together well past the retreat conclusion, through the online community. Participants can extend the experience for up to 6 months through the community, or for a lifetime through relationships built from this exciting adult learning opportunity. The lasting impact of this approach is proven and blended learning offers the ability to reflect on, practice and embrace new knowledge and new habits unlike any other traditional professional development approach.  

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